[In-Person] SME ACCelerate Forum 2022

Event Details

SME ACCelerate Forum 2022 is a half-day in-person conference focused on how the business community can support the sustainable growth of SMEs. This inaugural Forum marks the first anniversary of the SME ACCelerate program, which aims to help SMEs achieve growth and development in four key areas: mental well-being, women-led businesses, digitalization, and SME Connect & Learn.

The event will kick off with a fireside chat with our Guest of Honor, Mr Alvin Tan, Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry & Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. Minister Tan will also help launch the first AmCham Mentoring Program to support SME leaders.

Plenary sessions include:

- ACCelerating Out of the Pandemic: Insights from the ASEAN Business Outlook Survey 2022

A panel discussion on the AmCham ASEAN Business Outlook Survey (ABOS) 2022 findings and key insights with a focus on SME growth in the region

- Force Multipliers for MNC-SME Partnerships: A Conversation with the AmCham CEO Council

Members of the AmCham CEO Council will share their insights and experiences on how MNCs and SMEs can form partnerships to reach greater heights.

The Forum will conclude with networking over a light lunch with breakout sessions on mental well-being, women-led businesses, and digitalization.

Join us at AmCham SME ACCelerate Forum 2022 for a day of insights and connections. Register today!

By paying for your ticket before the event, you help make sure that AmCham can continue to offer meaningful programming for our members.

* For any enquires please contact the AmCham Programming and Events Team at pe@amcham.com.sg.

* Cancellation Policy: No refunds will be provided for cancellations. Replacements will be accepted.

Speakers

Alvin Tan

Minister of State at Ministry of Trade and Industry & Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth

Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei

Chief Executive Officer at AmCham Singapore

Jeff Paine

Managing Director of Public Sector (PS) Engage

David Cai Jinhang

Head of Public Policy and Government Relations, Southeast Asia at PayPal

Lisa Rigoli

Deputy Trade Attaché at United States Trade Representative (USTR), U.S. Embassy

Glenn van Zutphen

Founder & CEO of VanMedia Group Pte Ltd

Agraj Sharma

Senior Vice President - General Manager at Procter & Gamble, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam

Matthew Michelini

Head of Asia Pacific at Apollo Global Management

Sara Jane Bresee

Managing Director, APAC of MasterControl

Mr. Alvin Tan was elected as a Member of Parliament in July 2020, and was shortly appointed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as Minister of State for the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, and the Ministry of Trade & Industry. He assumed these appointments on 1 Sep 2020.

Mr. Tan has worked in the private, public and non-profit sectors. Before joining the government as Minister of State, he served as LinkedIn’s Head of Public Policy & Economics for the Asia Pacific, where he and his team help economies prepare for the rapidly changing nature of work using analytics and data solutions.

Before LinkedIn, Mr. Tan was Head of Public Policy and Trust and Safety at Facebook (as well as Instagram and WhatsApp) where he was responsible for strategic investments, helping small and medium businesses digitize, authenticity, cybersecurity and online safety.

Between 2010-2015, Mr. Tan worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong and Singapore. Before that, he worked as a speechwriter and on technology projects at the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General in New York. Mr. Tan has also served in the Singapore Armed Forces as an armour officer, and the Ministry of Defence in diplomacy, research and counter-terrorism roles. He has also worked at Oxfam in Australia.

Mr. Tan has been an active community leader in Singapore since 2005, serving youth, seniors and vulnerable families in both the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng and Moulmein-Cairnhill constituencies. He was also Chair of the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circle (IRCC).

Mr. Tan holds a First Class Honours in Economics from Sydney University and a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University. He was awarded the 2008 Tan Kah Kee Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship, and the International and Global Affairs Fellowship from the Belfer Centre of Science and International Affairs at Harvard.

Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Singapore — the largest and the most active international business association in Singapore and Southeast Asia, with over 6,000 members representing over 550 companies. Hsien is also Adjunct Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, member of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Advisory Board, member of the Singapore Institute of Directors MNC Committee, co-lead of the WorkWell Leaders SME Action Sub-Group, and on the organizing committee of the Precision Public Health Asia Conference.

Prior to AmCham, Hsien was Vice President, Medical and Scientific Affairs, Medtronic Asia Pacific, where she was responsible for the Medtronic Innovation Centers in Japan and Korea, training and education, and the company’s health systems transformation strategy in the region. Hsien has extensive experience in scientific affairs, corporate and healthcare communications, advertising, public relations and government affairs.

Hsien has lived and worked in the US, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, UK, and is now based in Singapore. She holds a BA (with honors) in Human Biology from Stanford University and a PhD in Epidemiology from The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health where she was the recipient of a US National Institutes of Health Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology Training Grant. Her doctoral thesis explored the genetic epidemiology of end-stage renal disease and type 2 diabetes. She completed her post-doctoral fellowship at National Taiwan University Hospital in the Department of Internal Medicine.

AmCham Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Committee Co-Chair

Jeff is a Singapore-based professional with more than 25 years’ experience at leading multinational corporations including Visa, Microsoft, Reuters and the Royal Bank of Canada. He has been based in Singapore for more than 24 years and has held regional roles covering Southeast Asia for more than 19 years. In 2014, he established PS-engage, his own government relations consulting firm. PS-engage works with leading IT, e-commerce, finance and payment companies to provide guidance on constructive engagement with governments and to assist with regulatory and policy work. He is also currently the Managing Director of the Asia Internet Coalition, a leading industry body that promotes smart regulatory reforms for the digital economy. Jeff was a Co-Chair of the Financial Services Committee for six years and is currently a Co-Chair of the Small and Medium Enterprises Committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. Jeff is also a member of the Tax Feedback Panel at the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS).

Jeff has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Western Ontario in Canada and an MBA in Finance from Rutgers University in the U.S.A. He also attended the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he has completed a diploma program on Innovations in Governance.

David Cai Jinhang is the head of public policy and government relations for Southeast Asia at PayPal. Based in Singapore, he leads government advocacy, strategy and outreach efforts across 10 markets in the region.

David has more than 14 years of combined government and industry experience in international trade and public policy. Prior to joining PayPal, he was a strategy consultant at PwC Singapore consulting for corporate clients and government agencies, including Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on Telco Cybersecurity Strategy, Global Media Hub Strategy, Digital Economy Strategy, and Trusted Framework on Data Sharing and the Economic Value of Data. He also served as Manager of Investment Promotion and Strategic Advisory at Economic Development Innovations Singapore, a government-linked firm responsible for exporting Singapore’s brand of investment promotion expertise. He previously held various positions in the Singapore government as a diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including overseas and domestic assignments in Indonesia and Singapore, and as the Divisional Director of Strategic Planning at International Enterprise Singapore (now Enterprise Singapore), a government agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry focused on the promotion and cultivation of Singapore’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

David earned a Bachelor of Arts in interdisciplinary social sciences at the University of Tokyo on Singapore Public Service Commission and Japanese Monbukagakusho (Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) scholarships and is effectively trilingual in English, Mandarin and Japanese. He enjoys poetry, reading and watching movies in his free time and is a published poet in Mandarin and English.

AmCham Board of Governors

Glenn van Zutphen (He/Him) is a career international journalist, radio host, and Founder of VanMedia Group Pte Ltd, a worldwide media consultancy. He has coached thousands of high-performing business leaders, journalists, and government officials around the world to be confident, credible, and clear in their communication. Glenn is a recognized communications expert, keynote speaker, and meeting facilitator. He also hosts the “Saturday Mornings” radio show every week on MoneyFM 89.3, Singapore’s most trusted business news station.

For more than 25 years as a professional journalist, Glenn has worked in print, radio, television, and online news based in the US, Japan, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Singapore. As both the Regional News Editor for CNBC Asia/Pacific and Anchor and Producer at CNN International, he covered stories ranging from the Balkan War and Millennium celebrations, to the War Against Terror, the Asian Tsunami, and Hong Kong's 1997 Handover. An active writer, he co-authored the business marketing book "Happy Customers Everywhere," and contributed to "The American Journey in Singapore", and six editions of the "Living in Singapore Reference Guide."

Glenn sits on the Boards of the AmCham Singapore, the East-West Center (Honolulu, HI), and the Asian American Journalist Association (Asia). He holds a Master’s Degree in Digital Media Management from Teesside University (UK)/Hyper Island Singapore and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Southern California. Glenn and wife Kat Hawthorne van Zutphen have been Singapore Permanent Residents since 2005 and have two children.

As CEO of P&G Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, Agraj oversees the P&G operations in these markets, delighting consumers daily with market leading brands such as Downy, Dynamo, Ariel, Head & Shoulders, Pantene, Rejoice, Olay, Gillette, Oral B, Vicks.

Agraj started his career in P&G India in 2005, and since then has held various leadership positions in Sales, Commercial leadership and General Management in India, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and South Africa. Having worked across 18 countries, his experiences are broad, spanning developed and developing markets, FMCG and Healthcare.

He is passionate about building brands, people and organizations while creating strong
community impact. Agraj is also a strong advocate for advancing of Equality and Inclusion. He is currently serving on the CEO Council for American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) Singapore and has served on the boards of Amcham South Africa and US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC), Vietnam Chapter.

Agraj graduated with a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi in 2003, and holds a MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta.

Mr. Michelini is a Partner and CEO of Apollo Asia-Pacific. He also Co- Leads Apollo’s Hybrid Value strategy. Mr. Michelini has played a pivotal role in the creation and success of a number of Apollo’s largest growth initiatives, including Athene, Hybrid Value, Apollo Dedicated Insurance Program, Natural Resources, and the development of the Financials Group. Upon joining Apollo in 2006, Mr. Michelini spent several years in the firm’s Private Equity business, where he was focused on deals in media, financial services, and metals & mining across a number of geographies.

Previously, Mr. Michelini was a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions group at Lazard Frères & Co. Mr. Michelini serves on the board of directors of Athene Holding Ltd. and Venerable Holdings, and previously served on the boards of Aleris Corporation, Metals USA, Noranda Aluminum, One Main Financial, and Warrior Met Coal. Mr. Michelini received his MBA from Columbia University and graduated from Princeton University with a BA in mathematics and a Certificate in finance.

As Managing Director of APAC, Sara is charged with increasing market share in China, India and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. Additionally, she is responsible for MasterControl’s channel partner program worldwide. Her mission is to ensure MasterControl’s Life Sciences customers in the region are successful and well-supported during their digital transformation from paper-based manufacturing environments to digital ones.

During her time as EVP of Marketing and Channel, Sara rebranded and repositioned MasterControl. Her work strengthened MC's digital demand generation foundations to enable double-digit growth. In her last role as Chief Marketing Officer for Morpho Detection, a subsidiary of the French conglomerate Safran, she architected the brand make-over and introduced growth marketing for this security manufacturer.

Sara brings more than 25 years of experience in enterprise sales and marketing. Sara worked for several valuable brands including Intel Corporation, Microsoft, FranklinCovey, and Ford Motor Company. Sara is a Chicago native, a Michigan State University alumna, relocated her family and their cat to Singapore in October 2022. She makes a great charcuterie plate.

Sponsors and Partners

AmCham Member

Employees in a member company and are part of the membership roster

Member PriceS$55

Member Company

Employees in a member company but not in the membership roster

Public PriceS$55

Non-Member

Attendees that are not part of a member company and/or the membership roster

Public PriceS$75

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